Commercial Bank of Africa has been extended the exemption to regularise its ownership of Crane Bank Rwanda, which it acquired in February 2018 for $96 million.
National Treasury and Planning Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has given the bank up to June 2019 to effect the changes “…in connection with the acquisition of shares in Crane Bank Rwanda…,” read the notice from CS Rotich.
Crane Bank Rwanda is a subsidiary of Crane Bank Uganda.
The Bank of Uganda intervened and took over the management of Crane Bank in October 2016 after an inventory of its assets and liabilities found that the lender was massively insolvent, with core capital of negative $65 million, as a result of mismanagement and fraud.
BoU flipped the bank to Uganda’s DFCU Bank in January 2017, whose majority shareholder is Arise B.V. (owned by Norfund, Norfinance, FMO and Rabobank), for $52.8 million.
Kenyan mid-tier Commercial Bank Africa (CBA) has acquired Crane Bank Rwanda from Uganda’s Dfcu Bank.
In January 2018, CBA received regulatory approvals from Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda central banks to purchase the Rwanda’s subsidiary, which was concluded in February.
